COLUMBUS — Whether he’s at the controls of Clemson’s quick-strike offense or behind the wheel of a car, senior quarterback Tajh Boyd obviously likes to put the pedal to the metal.

Boyd recently got off with a warning for driving 84 mph on a South Carolina interstate, one day before South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney was cited for going 110 mph on the same stretch of highway.

Boyd made light of the coincidence after finishing a practice for Clemson’s Jan. 3 date with Ohio State in the Orange Bowl.

“I know my car’s faster than Clowney’s,” Boyd said. “I’m telling you. If I knew it was going to be on the news, I might as well have gone 125. I wish I would have knew we were having a competition.”

When it comes to competition, it’s not Boyd’s lead foot the Buckeyes are worried about. It’s his prolific arm.

His 12th-ranked Tigers (10-2) average 502 yards, 329 through the air, and 40.2 points per game. Boyd has completed nearly 68 percent of his passes for 3,473 yards and 29 touchdowns, with only nine interceptions. Eight receivers have caught multiple touchdowns, led by junior wideout Sammy Watkins, who has scored 10 times and amassed 1,237 yards on 85 catches.

The Tigers have seven pass plays of 60 yards or more and Ohio State has allowed seven pass plays of 60 yards or more.

Watkins has 14 100-yard reception games in his career, including seven this season. The Buckeyes have allowed a 100-yard receiver in eight different games.

No wonder OSU fans are leery of Boyd and Co. going from 0 to 30 or 40 (points) in no time flat against a defense ranked 105th out of 125 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney isn’t fooling anyone when he talks up the Buckeyes on that side of the ball.

“I think they do a nice job in the secondary with their scheme,” Swinney said. “They don’t make a lot of mistakes. They’ve been a little inconsistent in a game or two, but big-picture, they’ve competed at a high level. So it’s a good match-up. We like our guys, and I know they like their guys.”

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer would like his guys on defense a lot more if they weren’t putting so much pressure on their offense to score on practically every possession.

The seventh-ranked Buckeyes (12-1) have allowed 1,267 yards and 12 touchdowns through the air over the last four games. They’re giving up 259.5 passing yards per game, despite never having faced a top 30-rated quarterback. In fact, the Buckeyes have faced just one senior quarterback — Illinois’ Nathan Scheelhaase — compared to seven freshmen or sophomores.

It makes one wonder what a veteran like Boyd, who once appeared headed to Ohio State, will do to the team he spurned.

“There are too many (things to focus on); it’s not one thing,” Meyer said of his embattled pass defense. “It’s not man coverage, it’s not zone coverage. It’s all of the above, and the pass rush, the time to call blitzes, and (making) sure blitzes match the coverage. We have to play better.”

Quarterbacks have had career days on almost a weekly basis against the Buckeyes. In week 3 (before safety Christian Bryant was lost to a broken ankle), Cal freshman Jared Goff threw for 371 yards and three touchdowns, starting a trend that saw Wisconsin’s Joel Stave throw for 295 and Northwestern’s Trevor Siemian and Iowa’s Jake Rudock each go for 245 while combining for five touchdown passes.

Even with Scheelhaase getting sacked five times and hit at least that many times on other pass attempts, he unflinchingly threw for 288 yards and two scores in a 60-35 loss.

Just when Meyer thought it couldn’t get any worse, Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner snapped out of a nearly season-long funk to pass for 451 yards and four touchdowns as the Wolverines fell just short of upsetting the Buckeyes 42-41.

A week later, Michigan State’s Connor Cook produced his first 300-yard passing game, tossing three TDs as the Spartans ruined OSU’s bid for a BCS title with a 34-24 win in the Big Ten Championship Game.

“We’re not going in there to give up (a ton of) passing yards,” tackle Michael Bennett said. “We can’t have breakdowns. We can’t have our guys having good coverage and then one D-lineman not winning his one-on-one. We can’t have guys winning one-on-ones (up front) and then have a breakdown in coverage. We have to have 11 guys doing their job on every play. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask.

“We have plays where we have 10 guys doing their job or nine guys doing their job and it doesn’t work out. But when we have 11, we’re pretty good athletes.”

Meyer has hinted at personnel changes, possibly resulting in more playing time for nickel back Tyvis Powell and freshman safety Vonn Bell. A five-star recruit out of Georgia, Bell might unseat Corey “Pitt” Brown, a fifth-year senior who never started a game until Bryant suffered his season-ending injury.

“He’s a very instinctive player ... fast,” safety C.J. Barnett said of Bell. “I think he has play-making ability. I think he has a nose for the ball. I think we could see him a lot in the bowl game. I think he’ll be able to match up with their guys and make plays.”

The key could be getting Boyd out of his comfort zone. In his three years as a starter, Clemson is plus-26 in turnovers in 31 victories and minus-19 in eight losses.

In their last Orange Bowl appearance, two seasons ago, Boyd accounted for three of Clemson’s four turnovers in a 70-33 rout by West Virginia. In the Tigers’ two losses this season, they are minus-9 in turnover margin.

In a 51-14 loss at home to No. 1-ranked Florida State, Boyd threw two interceptions and fumbled once, part of a four-turnover performance by Clemson. In their last game, a 31-17 loss to South Carolina, the Tigers had six turnovers — four after SC went ahead 24-17 in the fourth quarter, including two interceptions and a fumble by Boyd.

Problem is, Ohio State hasn’t made many quarterbacks look bad this season and the critics keeps getting louder.